Some years ago, after taking the helm of the OTY Awards from Archie Black, I would get many questions about the past Awardees. Many members wanted to know, "What won in the past?" About the only record at that time of past winners was in the past copies of the Club's Newsletter (the CCTN).

Working with Greg Susong (the Club's webmaster at the time) we started to populate the Club's webpage with scans of the past winners. Since it was best to scan the original items, I decided to try and put together a complete set of past winners, and to acquire the scanning examples as donations to the Club, from Club Members.

Many Club Members were more than willing to donate a chip or token, and in the beginning I tried to limit the donating to one item to better share the legacy of donating with more people. If you look at the Club's website, we pay tribute to the many people that donated the appoximately 57 past OTY winners. And in the case of the 1993 Token of the Year (TOTY) the winner was a $28 Aladdin Silver Strike (this was before Silver Strikes became their own category) and if I recall correctly, at about $200, the fair market value was too pricey for an owner to donate an example to the Club. What I did was to try and put together a group to provide equal amounts of funds to buy a strike that became available For Sale. That group is identified as: Paul Donohue, Don T. Nesbitt, Jr., Brian Watts and Rick Miner. Collectively, they bought the strike and donated it to the Club.

This is very similar to what just happened, however, instead of having donated equal amounts, a minimum was set and donors were more than welcome to exceed that amount. Another big difference this time around, was that more time would be needed to get donors lined-up and the money collected, incrementally, needed to be stored somewhere. In discussing the matter with the Club's Treasurer, it was decided that the Club would hold the funds and then release it to the seller once it was all together.

But, long story short, The Club is not buying this item for the Permanent Ciollection of All Past OTY Award winners and future placement with the MOGH. It is a donation to the Club and MOGH, from Club members and interested parties.

Thank you for your question and I hope it has been answered. If not, please let me know.

Thanks!

Jim